I love these compound nouns that are such a feature of Dutch (and German I believe).
In English we don’t really have this so much.
Our own “toothpaste” and “underground” pale into insignificance when compared with the glorious “bestuurdersaansprakelijkheidsverzekering” or “Kindercarnavalsoptochtvoorbereidingswerkzaamheden”!
Such a creative language 🙂

LOL @ recidivists. Rebecca is right, very few native English speakers know/use this word. The angry shopkeeper certainly would not. It is used mostly in formal contexts, e.g., studies, law enforcement discussions, etc. The everyday person doesn’t use it.

Thanks guys for your comments, I’ve made ‘repeat offender’ the first translation.
Let’s keep ‘recidivist’ for those DWOTD readers who just can’t prevent getting involved in formal law enforcement discussions 😉

Thanks Twain lives on!
Very interesting and amusing.
Reminds me of that old story about the British diplomat and his translator listening to one of Bismarck’s speeches. Two minutes after the start of the speech the diplomat asks his colleague, who has been sitting in silence, “Why aren’t you translating the Chancellor’s speech?”.
“I’m waiting for the verb, Sir”, he replies dryly…:-)